< Or Not | Vault Of The Drow | Mushroom Grab >
<Mike_Holmes> The dragon in the central pit seems to be out of earshot, as it's both on the other side of the central pit, up against one wall, and Rylfein and Izzdaer are in cells on the opposite side.
<Mike_Holmes> Still... who can tell how well a dragon can hear?
03* Mese is now known as Izzdaer
<Mike_Holmes> Rylfein is tied up against the cage wall between the two cages.
<Mike_Holmes> the intent being to prevent him from being able to use his magic... though the guards who tied him up were far from certain that this would work.
06* Izzdaer isn't thrilled with being imprisoned, but figures, or at least hopes, that it's only temporary while Alba recovers her composure.
<Mike_Holmes> Not being courageous sorts, the guards have retreated to their posts upstairs.
<Mike_Holmes> There are few others who might overhear, most of the population of the cells having been recently freed by Rylfein.
<Mike_Holmes> Rylfein has just gained consciousness, and realized where he is.
<Izzdaer> "It wakes." Izzdaer observes, drily.
06* Rylfein licks his lips, caked with dried blood, eyes opening up slowly and flutteringly as if after a bad hangover and dream both.
<Izzdaer> "I'd consider it a personal favour if you don't mount another prison break right away."
<Izzdaer> "Self-control isn't your strong point, I know, but maybe concussion will serve instead."
06* Rylfein looks around himself with a kind of vague resignation.
<Mike_Holmes> Rylfein notes through the bars that a lid on a small drain in the central pit has just popped open.
<Mike_Holmes> A toad hops out.
06* Rylfein nods sagely.
06* Rylfein looks a Izzdaer, and then at the toad, and then back at Izzdaer again.
<Mike_Holmes> The toad looks around for a moment, and then takes a few leaps towards Rylfein's cage, and through the bars into it.
06* Rylfein mumbles something.
<Rylfein> "Phew, agh."
06* Rylfein opens up his stuck together lips with a grunt of pain.
<Mike_Holmes> Once inside, the cage, the toad looks around a bit more.
<Mike_Holmes> At this point the toad begins to glow slightly and bulge oddly.
06* Rylfein cocks his head to the side and at Izzdaer, with an I-told-you-so expression - as far as facial expressions can at all be made after being punched by a troll.
<Mike_Holmes> Izzdaer, previously not having noted the toad, now sees this transformation occuring.
<Mike_Holmes> From the angle, it's unlikely that the toad thing has seen Izzdaer, as it happens
<Mike_Holmes> .
06* Izzdaer raises his eyebrows.
<Mike_Holmes> Wings burst out of the transforming creature's back, and claws from it's arms, and a little horned face forms.
<Mike_Holmes> It leaps up into the air, flapping furiously, and Rylfein notes that it has a barbed tail.
<Mike_Holmes> It lands near his head, grabbing the bars to hold itself there.
<Mike_Holmes> It whispers into Rylfien's ears, "Our master is very pleased with your work, and has sent me as a reward."
06* Rylfein moves away from the wall as far as his bonds let him, looking over his shoulder at the toad expectantly.
<Mike_Holmes> The little monstrosity says, "I am to serve you, as helper and messenger. The master asks if you have any questions you would have him answer for you. If you do, I will have to go to him to ask. If you have no questions, I will stay and serve."
<Izzdaer> "So your Breaker of Chains is a thing of the Abyss, madman."
06* Rylfein blinks once or twice.
<Rylfein> "Deceiver!"
06* Rylfein spits and rails against the toad-demon.
<Mike_Holmes> The quasit looks into Izzdaer's cell and notes him there, and scowls at him.
<Mike_Holmes> Then he notes Rylfein's demeanor, and drops from the bars onto the floor
<Mike_Holmes> and scuttles away.
<Rylfein> "The Severer would not bind another!"
<Izzdaer> "Oh, you don't approve? What had you visualised? Some astral spirit of love?"
06* Rylfein justles and tustles uselessly against the wall.
<Mike_Holmes> "I am not bound! I serve the master willingly as you do. He asked if I would be your rewards, and I said I would!" it shouts back.
<Izzdaer> "Tchah! We all bind one another, in small ways and large. Your master is just another flavor of dictator. Our only hope is for the chains we bind ourselves in to be our own."
<Mike_Holmes> "If you do not want me, I will go back to the master," says the thing to Rylfein, ignoring Izzdaer.
<Rylfein> "Gra! Rah! Njaghh..."
06* Rylfein does not react favourably to Izzdaer's opinion.
<Rylfein> "Prove yourself!"
<Rylfein> "Free me and him from our bonds!"
<Mike_Holmes> "As you command, oh fellow follower of Breaker of Chains!" says the small thing. It flies over to his bindings, and starts clawing at them.
<Izzdaer> "Oh, no. Even if you can, please don't. I LIKE my bonds."
<Izzdaer> "This is folly upon folly, madman."
06* Rylfein grins widely at Izzdaer.
<Rylfein> "Follies upon feels make fools walk free."
<Mike_Holmes> The quasit works feverishly at the ropes, using it's claws to good effect.
<Izzdaer> "You were beyond lucky to get the mercy you have been shown thus far. Alba will not suffer your trickery a second time."
<Rylfein> "When then will your head be?"
<Izzdaer> "Securely attached to my shoulders. I wish I could say the same for yours."
06* Rylfein stands up, now free, and rubs his wrists.
06* Izzdaer reflects for a second. "Actually, decapitation would be far too easy. But I would angle for it from the guards when they corner you, if you can. All the alternatives are worse."
<Rylfein> "Look at me, book-man. This blood is not my own."
06* Izzdaer looks at Rylfein, with a certain sadness.
<Izzdaer> "Perhaps you can fight, and run. But where will you go?"
<Rylfein> "I will go where I'm not bound."
<Izzdaer> "Freedom is a double-edged sword. You are free to starve, free to freeze, free to live in fear all the rest of your days. I still say decapitation would be cleaner."
06* Rylfein takes a few steps more towards Izzdaer's cell.
<Rylfein> "Everywhere."
06* Rylfein 's eyes are blazing."
<Rylfein> "Everywhere."
<Rylfein> "Rylfein is not bound by fear."
<Rylfein> "But you, wordsman."
<Rylfein> "You'll be bound even when your chains come clanging, clanging down."
<Izzdaer> "I'd sooner be bound by fear than unbound by sense. But by all means, escape. Just leave me clear of it."
06* Rylfein presses his face right into the bars of Izzdaer's cell.
<Rylfein> "No."
<Rylfein> "I will break your bonds."
<Rylfein> "All of them."
06* Rylfein crouches down and pushes his long bony arm into Izzdaer's cell, his hand grabbing firm hold of his knee, leaving a stain of not quite fully caked blood that somehow seems warm. No, burning?
<Izzdaer> "What are you.."
<Izzdaer> Izzdaer blinks, his skin sizzling audibly beneath Rylfein's palm.
<Izzdaer> The door lock clocks,the ropes around hid hands drop away, unregarded.
<Izzdaer> Izzdaer's eyes snap wide open, and he stares at some inner canvas.
<Izzdaer> "Aha."
<Izzdaer> "Ahahahahahaha."
<Izzdaer> "ahahahahaAHAHAHAHAAHAhahahaAHAHAHAHhahahaHAhHahhaha!!"
<Izzdaer> His clothes have seared away beneath Rylfein's grip, the skin is visibly burning. But Izzdaer just laughs.
06* Rylfein lets go of Izzdaer's knee, his own hand burnt, and just stares, jaw slightly agape eyes wide with a bliss and surprise.
06* Rylfein finally stands up, joy on his face, and in a calm, if somewhat pained stride, walks to the door of his cells and rests his hand on it, and it promptly jumps off its hinges.
<Rylfein> "Try to keep up, friend to the Severer of Chains."
<Mike_Holmes> The quasit nods and follows.
03* Izzdaer is now known as Mese|foodbrb
06* Rylfein dashes, gritting his teeth, right through the exit route he had already taken. The place is still much in disarray - doors off their hinges, guards injured or dead. Not enough to run off unseen, but enough to run off. In the end, perhaps the guards and even the locked dungeon itself felt the waste of effort trying to catch him would even be?
03* Rylfein is now known as D Weird?
02* D Weird? ([email protected]) Quit (Disintegrated: Chat Zilla? 0.9.88 [Firefox 10.0.2/20120215223356])
03* Mese|foodbrb is now known as Mese|eating
03* Mese|eating is now known as Mese|satiated
03* Mese|satiated is now known as Mese
03* leli is now known as aurora
03* Irinea (~not@Magic Star?-29E66F65.range109-155.btcentralplus.com) has joined #indie_nar
03* Irinea is now known as Alba
03* Mese is now known as Izzdaer
<Mike_Holmes> *
<Mike_Holmes> Just a bit after Rylfein has stolen off, the guards bring Aurora and Izzdaer up to Alba in the main dome chamber. Vael looks up at her from below, curious.
06* Izzdaer is swaying gently. He was found giggling helplessly, apparently mid-escape but still in his cell - just unbound, and with an unlocked door.
01<aurora> Aurora walks with a deep exhaustion that her mind has not recovered from as quickly as her body.
<Mike_Holmes> Guzara says, "We beg your pardon, mistress. But the crazy male drow has escaped yet again. He has powers we cannot control."
<Izzdaer> "hehahahahhehhehaha"
<Alba> "You what? You lost another prisoner!"
<Mike_Holmes> He simply bows low.
06* Alba glances over at Aurora
06* Alba lashes at Guzara.
<Alba> The tip of her whip still moist from ealier.
06* aurora doesn't look at Alba, just flattens her ears back when she feels the woman's gaze on her
<Alba> "I should have Vael drown all three of you in acid."
<Mike_Holmes> Guzara recoils from the lash, but cries out only a little.
<Mike_Holmes> Alba notes him take a slight glance at the dragon.
<Alba> "Izzder you took your time! Explain yourself!"
<Izzdaer> "Hisss! Bbubble bubble blub. Hahahahaha."
01<aurora> Aurora looks at Izzdaer strangely. He was the one who talked her into coming back and now he was... what? A mad fool?
06* Alba Alba notices something different about Izzdaer but can't put her finger on what.
<Mike_Holmes> As Aurora looks about, she notes that the dome seems to be relatively clear of the strange miasmal mist that seems prevalent everywhere outside. But she also realizes that this may be the result of this place having more of the strange visible light that seems so dim outside.
<Mike_Holmes> The mists are there... they're just less visible in here.
<Mike_Holmes> She notes this, because at random a cloud of the stuff coalesces slowly in the center of the dome about them, showing the contrast.
06* Alba walks up to Izzdaer she gazes into his eyes it is obvious that he is somewhere else.
06* Izzdaer blinks at Alba.
<Izzdaer> "You are... so... very... attractive."
<Izzdaer> "Hehhehehehe."
<Izzdaer> "I'd like to whip you. Hic!"
06* aurora shifts as far away from the stuff as she can without running into pointy things. And Izzdaer for that matter.
<Alba> "Guard give him some wine."
<Izzdaer> "Excellent! A toast to Lloth, why not! May she lose her legs."
<Alba> "YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO SPEAK HER NAME!"
<Mike_Holmes> As the mist gets particularly dense in here (Aurora gets the feeling that the Drow don't really notice), they suddenly cause a very peculiar shiver to go down her spine.
<Alba> The glow from Alba's earlier liaison is long past. She has been mocked enough for one day. She begins to chant a spell that will snap Izzdaer out of his manic ramblings with excruciating pain.
01<aurora> "This isn't gonna be good," she mumbles to herself, edging far enough back that one of the guards' swords adds a sharp pain to her spine.
06* aurora closes her eyes and starts to pray to Ferrix, clutching her holy symbol which still dangles from the chain on her neck.
<Mike_Holmes> As she does so, the shiver seems to change subtly. Its still there, and awful, yet she also feels that it's somehow... linked? to her?
<Mike_Holmes> As Aurora looks about at the mists, she notes Snuuli is still hiding in the planter.
06* aurora looks up at the mist, confused, but comforted by Snuuli's presence.
06* Izzdaer feels Alba's spell catch, the barbs of her writhing around his spine; but he also feels some alien sense, some spirit not his own, pushing against it. It feels like a sustained pressure through his body; muscles twist against theslves and tense, but his body seems to be rejecting it...
<Izzdaer> "I.... say... as I please."
<Izzdaer> "Wait, I do?"
06* Izzdaer looks momentarily panicked, and cringes.
<Mike_Holmes> Aurora, happening to note movement below, sees the black dragon looking up at what's going on. She gets the distinct notion that it's not looking at the action between it's mistress Alba and Izzdaer, but at Aurora.
<Izzdaer> "Uh... forgive me, mistress, I... don;t give a damn what you say!"
06* Izzdaer let's his mouth hang open on that last part, his finger jabbed forward....
<Izzdaer> "Uh... that is, I.."
06* Izzdaer slowly retracts the finger.
01<aurora> Remembering her supposed reason for being here, and intensely glad of the distraction the Izzdaer is giving her, she says, down to the beast <Why do you look at me that way?> in low but clear Draconic. She is far more fluent in this tongue than in Drow or Duergar or any of the other languages she'd picked up since coming here and for some reason she finds speaking it comforting.
<Mike_Holmes> <You can feel it... can't you?> the huge black reptile replies with hideous intelligence.
01<aurora> <...what is it?> she asks, unwilling to admit it.
<Izzdaer> "What am I doing?" Izzdaer says, to the air in general.
<Mike_Holmes> <This place is not entirely connected directly with the world into which you were born, cat-person,> it replies. <But it is linked to a place that your cat side can feel.>
01<aurora> <Is that why people get lost in the maze?>
<Mike_Holmes> <Yes!> it says after thinking for a moment.
<Mike_Holmes> <It is the nature that the Drow bring to the areas of the Underdark under their control.>
01<aurora> She now starts edging closer to the mist, feeling the link between it and her.
<Mike_Holmes> As she examines the mist and the link, it does in a way feel natural, but almost like some perversion of nature.
01<aurora> Her natural curiosity starts to kick in, despite the rest of the situation, and she reaches out to touch it tentatively.
06* Izzdaer clutches at his skull. "I don;t understand what is happening... but it is YOUR FAULT!" He slaps himself. "NO! Not your fault! The fault of this crippling, oppresive society! NO! Oh god STOP TALKING!"
<Mike_Holmes> Aurora can feel Ferrix protecting her from slipping totally into that realm that some call the Shadowfell. In this moment, she realizes that the entirity of the Vault of the Drow is half in her world, half in the Shadowfell, and that going between the two is all too easy. This helps explain all of the demons, of course, doors to the Abyss abound in that dark realm.
01<aurora> "Oh," she says aloud, wonderingly in the language of her home. "Well that explains everything."
06* Izzdaer starts pounding his head gently against the nearest wall.
06* Alba graps Izzdaer and throws him to the floor.
<Alba> *grabs
<Mike_Holmes> Aurora can see Snuuli nodding knowingly at her from the plant, making sure not to be seen by any others. He suddenly looks a lot like the sverfneblin of the cave that helped to steal Many Horn's soul.
<Alba> <Vael! What have I told you about speaking to prisoners.>
06* Alba can feel everything slipping away from her. She has so much control over people, but yet they always slip away.
01<aurora> Aurora runs her claws through the mist like a particularly terrifying old friend.
<Mike_Holmes> Aurora can tell that Snuuli's sense of directions is similarly elemental to hers, and that he can feel very much what she does.
<Alba> "I WILL HAVE OBEDIENCE!"
06* Izzdaer sprawls on the floor, and sems to recover some sense of self preservation because he covers himself with his hands. "Not the face! It's too beautiful!"
<Mike_Holmes> Aurora can feel the power of shadow there, and that she has only to reach out to tap into it... though this might not meet entirely with Ferrix's approval.
01<aurora> She frowns and withdraws her hand. The shadow is part of this place, this hateful place. Ferrix is home, and she won't forsake Her.
<Mike_Holmes> Aurora has heard that the dead stop in the shadowfell before moving on to the afterlife, and can almost feel some of those dead moving in space around her now.
<Alba> "You will love me, all of you!"
06* Alba pulls Aurora toward her. "Be mine, kitty!"
01<aurora> Startled from her reverie, Aurora looks up into Alba's eyes. "What?"
<Alba> "Willingly, please. Give and surrender yourself to me, as you have already given in to the forces around you, to the scent of the dark!"
06* aurora stares at her in confusion. The devil-woman is /asking/ her now? She was a servant of Lectula, she... well she definitely saw /that/. "...no, I haven't given in," she says, almost gently. "Ferrix guides me, even here, in the cold and dark."
<Mike_Holmes> Izzdaer, in his contact with the wall, feels something on his person, and is reminded of the brooch he got with the letter from the delivery boy on the street.
<Alba> Her gentle refusal only makes Alba want Aurora more. "I don't want to hurt you. I could. But I don't want to, kitty." She strokes an ear. "You could be free here. With me."
<Alba> "There's darkness in you, kitty. You want freedom. I want it for you too. I want to liberate you, kitty."
<Alba> "Just stay with me, a little while, and I will make you free, freer than you've known."
01<aurora> "I don't want to be here," she says softly, the touch sending shivers through her. "I miss the sun. Will you let me go back to the sun?" she asks plaintively.
<Alba> "I promise."
<Alba> "You will have the warmest of glows."
01<aurora> the promise of hope, of seeing the sun again, is enough to make her heart beat faster. Aurora looks into Alba's eyes, seeking reassurance. If she were to be trapped here, she would no doubt be forced to serve the woman eventually... "You promise, if I stay with you, you'll free me so I can go home, back up to see the Sun?"
<Alba> "I will not harm you only liberate you."
<Alba> "No one will ever harm you once you have given yourself to me."
<Alba> "Maybe we could see the sun together, it could be our little adventure."
01<aurora> "You would come with me?" she asks, surprised. "I thought you liked it here."
06* Alba shrugs. "I go where I please. If you stay anywhere too long it becomes a prison. And Vael will follow me anywhere."
<Mike_Holmes> The dragon looks up at the two of them.
01<aurora> Aurora shivers, and looks around the prison she is already in. Then she gives the smallest of nods.
<Alba> "So we have a deal? You follow me to my personal chabers?"
<Alba> *chambers
01<aurora> "Only you," she bargains. "No one else." Her ears flatten again, thinking of the brothel chambers.
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